Gleiwitz
Posted at 4:28 pm | Filed Under Uncategorized
Gleiwitz is the second concentration camp Ellie was brought to, it’s located in Gliwice, Poland. It was a branch camp of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. It’s where Ellie and the rest of the prisoners marched to while his foot was still injured. It was founded in 1944, the first several prisoners there were tasked to build seven wooded residential barraks a kitchen, hospital, storage units and workshops. As Ellie arrived in Gleiwitz him and his father were crushed by the crowd of men, he was also on top of Juliek (the kid with the violin). After three days of no food or water there, another selection happened, it’s the one where Ellie runs after his dad because he was sent to stand with the commended people. The prisoners worked repairing damaged sides of cars, in the machine shop and smithy, and building roads and a nearby airstrip. From the late summer of 1944, they were taken out to work on two 12-hour shifts. Prisoners who for some reason had no other assignment were assigned to “Steinetragen” which means to pointlessly carry stones from a nearby slag heap to the camp and back again. Almost a hundred Gleiwitz I prisoners died as a result of mistreatment, hunger, and backbreaking labor. At least five were shot while trying to escape. The number sent to Birkenau after selection cannot be established. The camp population just before evacuation in January 1945 was 1,336 prisoners
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